I saw someone today who attended one of my workshops a few years ago. At the end of every workshop I show the link to this blog, some information about my consulting practice and a link to a public file. Three years ago I shared a public file from Evernote that includes all my clipped articles on entrepreneurship (789). That would be articles from the over 100 blogs I read every day. The link to the file is https://www.evernote.com/pub/rhhfla/aaclass.
In the last two weeks Evernote released a new feature called "related notes". If you include my shared file in your Evernote, then every time you add a note or search for one of your notes any of my notes on a similar subject will also appear. That's pretty cool.
I have been working with a marketing professional to do a new website for my consulting services. Kind of fun but easier to do for a third party rather than yourself. This morning a friend said they had no real idea of what I do. They said they needed specific examples to be able to really understand. These are the examples of some of the questions I answer and the projects I gave him:
How much capital do I need for this project/strategy/acquisition?
How do I increase revenue from $x million to 10, 30,100 million annually?
Will this strategy produce the growth I want?
I need a new strategy to restart revenue growth
I need help to structure and negotiate a license, franchise, distributor, joint venture, acquisition agreement or which of these alternatives should I use to grow my business
Now I need to check whether the new website makes the services this clear
A website in Mexico specializing in entrepreneurship, Emprendedor Universal, did an interview with me (in Spanish). Link is here. One of the more thoughtful set of interview questions I have had.
Marginal Revolution has a post about a new article by Harvard economist Akos Lada entitled "The Dark Side of Attraction" (abstract). Lada makes the argument that Putin invaded Ukraine because his dictatorship was threatened by the economic and political success of the more democratic Ukraine. Ukraine's comparative success highlighted to the Russian populous the lackluster economic results of Putin's government and therefore put its continuation at risk. Lada also examines three historical cases to provide additional analysis on the hypothesis about Ukraine.
F.A. Hayek, Nobel economist, made a similar point in 1960 in The Constitution of Liberty:
"The benefits of freedom are therefore not confined to the free – or, at least, a man does not benefit mainly from those aspects of freedom which he himself takes advantage of. There can be no doubt that in history unfree majorities have benefitted from the existence of free minorities and that today unfree societies benefit from what they obtain and learn from free societies. Of course the benefits we derive from the freedom of others become greater as the number of those who can exercise freedom increases. The argument for the freedom of some therefore applies to the freedom of all."
Would be interesting to know if Putin has read Hayek.
(The reference to the Hayek quote above also came from Marginal Revolution.)
Note: The success of the One Laptop per Child project in Uruguay prompted both the Brazil and Argentine governments to undertake large scale 1:1 computer learning projects. This is another example of the same kind of logic on the part of country leaders that Lada discusses.
In addressing social problems, the scale of the problem requires a greater reliance on partnering. Partners often provide expertise, distribution, local networks and capital to name just a few of the benefits. Partnering is a key part of any social venture business model and therefore an opportunity for innovation. (See Innovation in Large Companies)
Last night I met the CEO of an early stage healthcare for-profit company. He is raising capital and building partnerships to sell his product. Potential partners include everybody from hospital chains, health insurance companies and Medicare to America's largest corporations. He told me he had received an acquisition offer from one prospective partner but discussions broke down over valuation. The acquisition offer came from a non-profit! This was a first for me, seeing a non-profit as the acquiror. Definitely a new form of partnering.
This article from SSIR, "The Rise of a Fourth Sector Skills Set", provides some other examples of new forms of partnering for social ventures. The author believes that the ability to innovate in developing partnerships is a key expertise that young social entrepreneurs need. I agree.
Recently I have had a rash of requests from women to speak to their boyfriends, lovers and fiancés about moving to and working in Miami. Maybe there is some truth to Miami becoming a high tech ecosystem, although I really don't know what that means. All of the men worked in tech and none of the women. Yes I know--gender inequality in tech for women--but I do not think that is why I get these requests. A perfect stranger, someone I met once at an event, asked me to speak to their beau.
Maybe there is a business here, facilitating the movement of men to Miami to get married or something like that. Given that the men all work in tech, maybe I could apply for a foundation grant to support what looks to me to be "social" entrepreneurship.
The challenge of course will be monetizing the service. Charging by the hour seems so mundane. Maybe I should become a headhunter and place these men in jobs in Miami. A friend suggested I should be a headhunter to leverage my large contact network. Given this unique pipeline to new tech talent, maybe my friend is right.
Any thoughts in the comments appreciated.
